Kelly Huang

Author: kelly huang

  • Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

    Start date: December 18, 2024

    End date: February 24, 2025

    Yellow highlight | Page: 42

    Look, everybody learns in a different way and we’re gonna figure out how you learn. She deduced that I needed repetition. That I needed to solve the same problems over and over again in a different way to learn, and she knew that took time.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 61

    Everything I did was to get a reaction out of the people who hated me most because everyone’s opinion of me mattered to me, and that’s a shallow way to live.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 66

    The ritual was simple. I’d shave my face and scalp every night, get loud, and get real. I set goals, wrote them on Post-It notes, and tagged them to what I now call the Accountability Mirror, because each day I’d hold myself accountable to the goals I’d set. At first my goals involved shaping up my appearance and accomplishing all my chores without having to be asked.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 68

    If you have worked for thirty years doing the same shit you’ve hated day in and day out because you were afraid to quit and take a risk, you’ve been living like a pussy.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 73

    Whether it’s a career goal (quit my job, start a business), a lifestyle goal (lose weight, get more active), or an athletic one (run my first 5K, 10K, or marathon), you need to be truthful with yourself about where you are and the necessary steps

    Yellow highlight | Page: 79

    there is a difference between being competent and comfortable in the water, another big gap from comfortable to confident

    Yellow highlight | Page: 95

    I had to flip it and convince myself that all that self-doubt and anxiety was confirmation that I was no longer living an aimless life.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 114

    forgetting happens the second we give control over our emotions and actions to other people, which can easily happen when pain is peaking.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 114

    I went into Hell Week knowing I put myself there, that I wanted to be there, and that I had all the tools I needed to win this fucked-up game, which gave me the passion to persevere and claim ownership of the experience. It allowed me to play hard, bend rules, and look for an edge wherever and whenever I could until the horn sounded on Friday afternoon.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 121

    On the other hand, people who are secure with themselves don’t bully other people. They look out for other people, so if you’re getting bullied you know that you’re dealing with someone who has problem areas you can exploit or soothe. Sometimes the best way to defeat a bully is to actually help them.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 122

    the ticket to victory often comes down to bringing your very best when you feel your worst.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 125

    didn’t realize that he saw something special in me and like any strong leader wanted to see how far I could take it,

    Yellow highlight | Page: 136

    I stopped seeing myself as the victim of bad circumstance, and saw my life as the ultimate training ground instead. My disadvantages had been callousing my mind all along and had prepared me for that moment in that pool with Psycho Pete.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 136

    Until you experience hardships like abuse and bullying, failures and disappointments, your mind will remain soft and exposed.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 136

    If you choose to see yourself as a victim of circumstance into adulthood, that callous will become resentment that protects you from the unfamiliar. It will make you too cautious and untrusting, and possibly too angry at the world. It will make you fearful of change and hard to reach, but not hard of mind.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 140

    Remembering that you’ve been through difficulties before and have always survived to fight again shifts the conversation in your head.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 147

    To develop an armored mind—a mindset so calloused and hard that it becomes bulletproof—you need to go to the source of all your fears and insecurities……was rejecting my past and therefore rejecting myself. My foundation, my character was defined by self-rejection……Even after I’d reached a point where I no longer cared about what others thought of me, I still had trouble accepting me……Only when you identify and accept your weaknesses will you finally stop running from your past.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 150

    during Hell Week you need a solid boat crew to survive, which means depending upon your classmates, not defeating them.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 186

    When we’re comfortable we can’t answer those simple questions that are bound to arise in the heat of battle because we don’t even realize they’re coming.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 189

    was hard on myself when I looked in the Accountability Mirror, but I also praised myself whenever I could claim a small victory, because we all need that, and very few of us take the time to celebrate our successes.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 210

    Most of us give up when we’ve only give around 40 percent of our maximum effort. Event when we feel like we’ve reached our absolute limit, we still have 60 percent more to give……The 40% Rule.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 219

    You will be made fun of. You will feel insecure. You may not be the best all the time. You may be the only black, white, Asian, Latino, female, male, gay, lesbian or [fill in your identity here] in a given situation. There will be times when you feel alone.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 221

    if you are on the hunt for your 100 percent you should catalog your weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 256

    If you get injured or other complications arise that prevent you from working on your primary passion, refocus your energy elsewhere.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 278

    All of us can be the person who flies all day and night only to arrive home to a filthy house, and instead of blaming family or roommates, cleans it up right then because they refuse to ignore duties undone.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 284

    Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb fuck in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 288

    My job as head of PT wasn’t to demand that my guys live up to the Navy SEAL legend I loved, it was to help them become the best version of themselves.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 290

    We can’t control all the variables in our lives. It’s about what we do with opportunities revoked or presented to us that determine how a story ends.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 294

    I was so confrontational I created needless enemies along the way, and I believe that’s what limited my access to the top SEAL Teams.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 343

    The kid I always judged so harshly didn’t lie and cheat to hurt anyone’s feelings. He did it for acceptance. He broke the rules because he didn’t have the tools to compete and was ashamed for being dumb. He did it because he needed friends. I was afraid to tell the teachers I couldn’t read. I was terrified of the stigma associated with special education, and instead of coming down on that kid for one more second, instead of chastising my younger self, I understood him for the first time.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 343

    I’d judged myself constantly and I’d judged everyone else around me, too.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 353

    What if is the power and permission to face down your darkest demons, your very worst memories, and accept them as part of your history.

  • Parental allowance cashflow

    Screenshot

    It used to be

    5% of income that all goes into a cash envelope. We pull money from it if there’s any large purchases for the parents or flush into red envelop during Lunar New Year.

    The experiment

    Luckily, our parents are in good financial shape and that gave us room to plan for the future.

    The idea came from Linda. We’ll experiment with splitting it half-half. Half in cash for the sort term expense; half in ETFs for long term cash flow.

    The success factor is whether 2.5% is enough to cover the sort term expense.

  • With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge

    Yellow highlight | Page: 119

    The Japanese’s mouth glowed with huge gold-crowned teeth, and his captor wanted them. He put the point of his kabar on the base of a tooth and hit the handle with the palm of his hand. Because the Japanese was kicking his feet and thrashing about, the knife point glanced off the tooth and sank deeply into the victim’s mouth. The Marine cursed him and with a slash cut his cheeks open to each ear. He put his foot on the sufferer’s lower jaw and tried again. Blood poured out of the soldier’s mouth. He made a gurgling noise and thrashed wildly. I shouted, “Put the man out of his misery.” All I got for an answer was a cussing out. Another Marine ran up, put a bullet in the enemy soldier’s brain, and ended his agony. The scavenger grumbled and continued extracting his prizes undisturbed.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 122

    As we talked, I noticed a fellow mortarman sitting next to me. He held a handful of coral pebbles in his left hand. With his right hand he idly tossed them into the open skull of the Japanese machine gunner. Each time his pitch was true I heard a little splash of rainwater in the ghastly receptacle. My buddy tossed the coral chunks as casually as a boy casting pebbles into a puddle on some muddy road back home; there was nothing malicious in his action. The war had so brutalized us that it was beyond belief.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 151

    “Have you gone Asiatic?” I gasped. “You know you can’t keep that thing. Some officer’ll put you on report sure as hell,” I remonstrated as I stared in horror at the shriveled human hand he had unwrapped.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 221

    There was nothing unique in the conversation. Thousands like it occurred every day among infantrymen scheduled to enter the chaos and inferno of an attack. But it illustrates the value of camaraderie among men facing constant hardship and frequent danger. Friendship was the only comfort a man had.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 228

    I expected to get hit. So did the others. I wasn’t being brave, but Redifer was, and I would rather take my chances than be yellow in the face of his risks to screen us. If he got hit while I was cringing in safety, I knew it would haunt me the rest of my life—that is, if I lived much longer, which seemed more unlikely every day.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 231

    War is mostly waiting. The men around me sat silently with drawn faces. Some replacements had come into the company to make up for our earlier losses.

    Yellow highlight | Page: 257

    I vividly recall grimly making a pledge to myself. The Japanese might kill or wound me, but they wouldn’t make me crack up.

  • 34/35

    On 34


    34 was a year of liberation. Millie turned 4 and now enjoys art and craft, I have more time on my own. I changed job after almost 7 year stay, it brought the opportunity to live in the US for 30 days. That was an unimaginable and incredible experience.

    Milestones

    • Exercise time more than doubled last year
    • Changed job after 6.8 years
    • Lived in US for a month
    • Stopped smoking and started running
    5,838 minutes of exercise vs 2,337 last year

    Lessons from 34

    1). 60% confidence is actionable

    This was the third or fourth offer in the 6 months search. I had enough sample size to know 60% this could work.

    It was still scary about leaving the people and place I worked for 6 plus year. It was comfortable, even with much frustrations. The doubt never went away: what if this doesn’t work out? What if I’m not qualified enough? How can I come back?

    I carried it with me to the new job, and the lack of thereof gave me a good push to perform.

    It’s what’s unknown that scares me, once I’m in it, I figured how to navigate. And this decision gave me the opportunity to experience different culture, project, skill, and lifestyle.

    2). I deeply enjoy feeling good physically

    I ran my first 10K in April. I had my last cigarette on my last day of work, June 20th. As of the time of writing, I run twice a week, weight lift twice a week, and swim once a week. I feel strong, that gives me confidence and feeds mental strength, it cycled back to my exercise and work performance. This feels deeply satisfying.

    3). Spending is a source of my anxiety

    I tracked my income and expense since second grade, it’s a thing I’ve been doing for 2+ decades. In the past year or two, this has brought me fatigue and tension in the household. I knew how to save and I would try to squeeze the last % if I need to sacrifice. But I don’t know how to spend, and I found this wouldn’t last long. One can only stress for enough time before giving up.

    4). Work is necessary

    We took a 9 day family trip to Malaysia during the break between two jobs. Day 7, midway at Penang, it felt either bored and anxious not to work at all.

    To 35

    35 will focus on learn to be happy. Not to degrade the performance, but learn to reward myself properly.

    1). Learn to spend

    “Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.” ― Ramit Sethi

    Linda and I setup another individual envelop for fun money, approximately 5% of our monthly income, split in half. We will try the approach to “save for ___”, to save for a goal, a bigger reward.

    2). Publish more

    This terrifies me. It’s the reason I started the blog; it’s the reason I procrastinate endlessly.

    “The degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance” ― Steven Pressfield

  • Communicate visual with Nano Banana

    Thinking this would be a good idea to paint a concept of VSaaS, I snapped this photo on the way off HSRT ride. With Google’s Nano Banana and couple of product photos, I could turn this into what I have imaged!

    Whether this is a good visual is subjective, but it saved me a least one mail and 10 minutes of explanation. Unbelievable.

    Next questions is, how can I get more of these “references”?

    Randomly done prompt: